STUDENT PROFILES
STUDENT PROFILE #1
Name: Justin
Grade: 5
Primary Disability: ID
Instructional Content: Modified
Learner Characteristics:/Present Levels: Justin is a 9 year old boy entering 5th grade. He is a child whose
educational program is aligned with alternate assessment expectations. His instructional program focuses
on functional skills and vocabulary development. Justin is social and communicates interest in other
people. He smiles in response to his name and makes vocalizations to express pleasure (relaxed body
tone) and displeasure (tense body tone). He consistently expresses various feelings i.e., discomfort and
excitement through facial expressions and gross vocalizations (.g., making a “ehho” sound to indicate
pleasure and a grunting noise to indicate displeasure). Justin does not currently have a system to
communicate choices. He needs to become effective in communicating his choices in a systematic and
defined way, such as reaching for choices with his left hand when two choices are placed in contact with
his left hand. Justin uses only his left field of vision to greet people. He demonstrates some functional
vision in his left field, and can maintain short periods of visual focus, 1-2 seconds, when provided with high
contrast and limited choices. When provided with a visual, verbal and or physical prompts, Justin can turn
his head slightly to the left to allow for greater visual access to information or people in his left field of
vision. Justin’s hand strength allows him to functionally use some switches, , he is able to use a large jelly
bean switch that s attached to his desk areas to avoid throwing of the switch. He has some movement his
right hand. When engaged in highly reinforcing tasks, Justin uses his right hand on average of 1 time a day
to activate a switch. Justin enjoys tactile stimulation and hand over hand assistance. He also enjoys music
and anything with sound. He is able to activate a switch with his left hand to utilize cause and effect
computer programs, music or a voice output device.
In literacy when given the choice of two symbols of key elements, Justin demonstrates understanding of
one key element for the story retell with hand over hand prompting. Justin currently does not generalize
vocabulary to new situations and new content areas such as writing and math. Justin currently writes using
single objects which represents one word phrases with hand over hand adult assistance. Justin relies on
adults to manipulate his object schedule by pushing away the finished object and touching the next object
in the sequence. With hand over hand adult assistance he is able to move up to 2 schedule objects (first
and next objects). As Justin becomes more independent in manipulating schedule objects, he will push
away the finished object and touch the next object with tap prompting.
STUDENT PROFILE #2
Student: Grace
Grade: 10
Primary Disability: Autism
Instructional Content: Accommodated/modified Curriculum
Learner Characteristics/Present Levels: Grace has a strong work ethic. She is artistic, enjoys music and
loves to draw. At school, Grace enjoys participating in the bimonthly potluck lunches for female students in
her caseworker's classroom. While she wants to be included in conversations, she tends to only ask
questions. Grace continues to present with a pragmatic language disorder. She is able to carry on a
dialogue with others, has great eye contact, body orientation and can recognize facial expressions in
structured settings; however she has difficulty with proximity to speaker. When asked to "interview"
someone, she will run through a series of questions, but does not ask for follow up information showing
that she is more focused on the task rather than gaining information about the other person. In addition,
her speech intelligibility is somewhat poor. She is able to interact socially in a group with modeling and
prompting. Grace is a loner at school, and has social pragmatic deficits. Grace is able to care for her
daily needs. Her speech resembles that of someone who is hearing impaired; it is inarticulate but
understandable.
Grace has significant anxiety when there are time constraints and doesn’t respond to constructive
criticism. Comprehension is concrete and she lacks the ability to do anything inferential or analytical. She
doesn’t understand how to do research and utilize multiple sources to compile a 5 paragraph essay. She
struggles with identifying a thesis statement and is unable to do transitions. When given a topic sentence
for a paragraph, she can formulate 3 details to support the topic 70% of the time. She loves to write and
will produce lengthy pieces of work that jump from idea to idea and often include Disney Princesses, her
preferred interest.
STUDENT PROFILE #3
Name: Steven
Grade: 4
Primary Disability: OHI Secondary Disability: SLI
Instructional Content: Grade Level Curriculum
Learner Characteristics: Complex Partial seizures occur weekly, has challenges with memory and exhibits
variability in performance due to seizure disorder, takes medication that impairs his fine motor skills so the
physical act of writing is a challenge, with the assistance of a paraprofessional participates in class, turns
in assignments, works well with peers, transitions well, follows 1-2 step directions, limited peer
relationships due in part to paraprofessional, nurse and unintelligibility, likes to play tether ball at recess,
escape behaviors include calling on a phone or talking as if he is part of a favorite TV show, he is
demonstrating pride and interest with helping in the school cafeteria and takes it seriously. Steven
dictates imaginative stories, generally about his dog, his friends and things that he knows will make others
laugh.
Present Levels: Steven can dictate a story, and he can type from a written sample (one sentence at a
time) with a standard keyboard. He is unable to edit, punctuate, and capitalize, etc. without assistance.
He is learning to use a graphic organizer to support his writing. His sentences are repetitive in word
usage. His independent reading level is 2.0, can decode single syllable CCVC, CVCC words, and is
beginning to decode multisyllabic words. His sight words are at 3.0 grade level as measured by CBA.
STUDENT PROFILE #4
Student: Chris
Grade: 10
Primary Disability: ED
Instructional Content: Grade Level Curriculum
Learner Profile: Chris enjoys drawing, likes computers, to play basketball during lunch, is working on
expressing his feelings, and enjoys making his peers laugh. Chris has shown much success in the
traditional classroom. Chris’ behavior has greatly improved, although he needs reminders often to stay on
task. When asked to complete tasks, Chris responds best when left alone. He typically makes positive
choices to do his work; he sometimes has difficulty knowing personal space and gets in trouble by coming
too close to someone or making faces and sounds to irritate others. He has matured in this area so it is
less of a concern than in prior years. Chris has a history of chronic ear infections, and has had several
sets of tubes. He takes medication for depression and anxiety daily. Chris requires extra support in the
area of executive functioning.
Present Levels: Chris is very capable and when given a topic for an essay he can gather information.
However, he will gather too much material and needs assistance choosing what information to use. If the
essay topic is not clearly defined, Chris will also need help with his thesis statement so that his writing will
reflect the chosen topic. Chris shows an understanding of concrete and analytical thinking and can infer.
Chris likes to read out loud in class and often volunteers; however if he is called on without volunteering he
typically will chose not to read. He reads about 230 wpm, which is grade level. Chris has the basic
mechanics of writing mastered (punctuation, capitals, etc). He averages 90% on comprehension
assessments. Chris’ handwriting is nearly unreadable. Chris is failing PE, and the teacher states that he is
never dressed.